


i love your beautiful wings

by InkWitch (serkestic)



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Crane Wife, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 22:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4804670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serkestic/pseuds/InkWitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes he thinks Rin can hear his thoughts in his own head. Rin reaches out and hesitates, his hand hovering close to Sousuke’s cheek. He drops it to caress his wings instead and Sousuke <i>knows</i> that Rin doesn’t know how that feels but he can’t help thinking that Rin <i>meant</i> to do exactly what he’s doing to him, his heart, his breath.</p><p>[for <a href="http://sourinweek.tumblr.com/">sourinweek</a>: day 2]</p>
            </blockquote>





	i love your beautiful wings

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Feathers Across the Seasons](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4798490) by [themorninglark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/themorninglark). 



> **fairytales**
> 
> I woke up today, went to class in a blur of sleepiness, came back home to check my emails, saw the Lark-Lexy Collab and rose from the pits of hell, fresh and ready to go, as if summoned. This is compensation for their _angst bonanza_ ~~also maybe a tribute pshaw don't tell~~.
> 
> Personal message to the inspirations: WTF you guys like genuinely WTF.

[ ](http://logicandfeels.tumblr.com/post/129075623143/sourinweek-day-2-paper-fairy-tales-crane-wife-au)

 

_You said that to me, our first spring together[.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4798490)_

 

 

* * *

 

When the snow starts dripping from bare branches, Sousuke watches with wide eyes. The slightest breeze toys with his hair, caught between cool and warming as if it can’t quite decide which kingdom of sky its allegiance is to. And when an entire clump of snow slides lazily off a branch, spattering sloppily on the wet ground, Sousuke just says, “ _Whoa_ ,” like _this_ is better than anything else that he’s ever seen -- better than chasing sunsets, better than coasting close to the starplains. Rin finds himself cackling until his stomach aches.

“You can see how strange it is to be surprised by melting ice, right?” Rin asks, still snickering. He’s lying on his side on their porch, lounging about in a loose _yukata_ instead of hoeing the field while it’s still soft. Sousuke glances at him before looking back at the trees’ wet trunks.

“This is the first time I’ve seen spring happen to the ground,” he says and he inhales deeply, the taste of the air somehow sweeter. _Somehow_. “It might be normal to a human, but I’ve been flying away from winters my whole life.”

A lifetime of feeling the whip of a cool wind on his cheek and knowing to turn it the opposite direction. Of fighting the tug of a wind tide, of rising higher and higher in the sky, bursting through altocumulus to see the cirrus clouds nearest to the sun. The call of his brothers and sisters all around him, every single one of them floating easily on the air currents above cumulus clouds, only the sun and the moon and the stars to see them. There were other crane siblings who preferred spending their lives in a smaller area, without bothering to migrate when the chills came, but Sousuke was never ever one of them.

He had always wanted to fly as high as possible, as long as possible.

But there is no itch to him now, as he sits close to Rin and leans back on his arms, one fist pressing against the warmth of Rin’s thigh, and watches green emerging from under a gray and white shadowing. The world sparkles, the fields give off the waft of fertile soil, and they can hear Rin’s lone pony whinnying softly to itself as it drinks from its trough. And while the sky turns bluer with each second, Sousuke only watches the cumulonimbus clouds shift wearily away from him.

“Sousuke,” says Rin, “look over there.”

He’s sitting closer to Sousuke now, his chest pressing into Sousuke’s back as Rin guides his gaze by turning his chin with a gentle prod of his fingers. Something inside of him yearns but he tamps it down sternly and follows Rin’s direction. He’s pointing to a very large clump of snow literally clinging to the branch it is on as it melts. Sousuke would give Rin a skeptical glance but to do so would put his face too close to temptation.

So he snarks, “Yes, I can see the snow, Rin. The novelty is the new greenery, not the snow.”

Rin pulls back and punches him on the arm. “I was showing you something cool! The snow’s about to fall off and it’ll show you something you haven’t seen before, _that’s_ what I was pointing out, dumbass!”

Sousuke gives him that glance now and then looks back at the singled out tree. The clump is determined not to melt. Which Sousuke finds curious in a different way, because how could the element be so stubborn when the air was so ebullient? His own shoulders are feeling a distinct lack because of the beckoning warmth; he flings himself on his back, blades cushioned by Rin’s legs, to get rid of the feeling.

“You can take off your shirt, you know,” says Rin. Sousuke nearly slides off of him.

“No, I’m good.”

Rin rolls his eyes. “Don’t be so ridiculous. I can tell you’re feeling uncomfortable. You’ll feel better if they’re out.”

“Rin,” says Sousuke in his ‘patient’ voice. “We’re not in the house, we’re out in the open.”

“So? The neighbors have gone to the market. I checked!”

Sousuke looks at him uneasily. “I’m… okay. It’s fine, it’s not that bad. I’ll fly a little after it gets dark.”

Rin rolls his eyes again but this time there is real frustration in the wrinkle of his brows. He reaches out -- and Sousuke tries not to shrink back, or move eagerly forward, both reflexes warring inside of him and holding him still as a statue -- and holds Sousuke’s bare neck, sliding his palm backward. The lightest blush is rising in his cheeks and Sousuke’s breath hangs in his throat, unsure of purpose. Rin’s fingers brush the rough skin over Sousuke’s shoulder blades.

“I can tell they’re itching,” says Rin. His voice comes out hushed and Sousuke wishes fervently that his next words aren’t breathy.

“...How can you tell?”

Rin’s eyes meet Sousuke’s directly and he can’t say that they look like they are hiding anything from him; but he can’t read the look in them and he can’t read the curve of Rin’s lips because both of them are telling him something he’s never heard before. And then the look disappears and Rin pulls away from Sousuke once more.

“You look uncomfortable,” is Rin’s final answer as he lies back down. “Just trust me, Sousuke.”

There’s some kind of innuendo in the situation which Sousuke would probably address if he had been more comfortable in human culture. He’s learned a lot from being with Rin and seeing Rin speak to people, sometimes speaking to people themselves -- but only when they are Rin’s two friends from the village, although he’s often been told by Rin that his words to the fisherman are a bit too caustic to be normal -- but there’s a different kind of confidence needed for how he wants to treat Rin and that knowledge is innate in Sousuke.

The knowledge burns his skin more than the yearning does and he hastily draws away from Rin to do as he’s told.

He can feel eyes on him as he pulls his cotton smock over his head, a ragged hole near the hem catching on his relaxing and growing blades. Before he can reach it himself, Rin moves the cloth gently away from Sousuke’s shifting muscles, the tip of his pinky brushing the mutating limb. A week ago, Sousuke would have shirked away because of that, but now he just stills and focuses his breathing so his wings don’t burst out of his human skin. He’s had practice so he doesn’t hurt himself as much as he used to before, but Rin gazing at him and Sousuke not being able to get the strength up to look at him is messing with his head.

Sousuke breathes in deep. And exhales.

His muscles grow out fluidly, the large span of his wings casting a shadow over the two of them. The ends of his wings touch the pillars of the porch: he can feel his feathers brush along the wood. As he relaxes, his span decreases until his wings are tucked in a roosting position.

It feels good. The breeze that had been flirting with his hair runs through his feathers, ruffling his darker lower wings. Sousuke sighs and leans back, resting his wings on the floor, his right one curving along Rin protectively. When he looks at Rin, finally, the wonder in his eyes is too much and his feathers shiver, wanting to curl tighter around Rin.

“I keep forgetting you’re _tanchōzuru_ ,” says Rin softly. “You look incredible. Like you’re straight out of a fairytale, or something.”

Sousuke smiles and stretches his wings. “In some ways, I guess I am,” he says. “I know my brothers and sisters are symbolic to your people in many ways.”

 _But if anyone is the fairytale_ , Sousuke thinks, watching Rin laughing to himself as he touches Sousuke’s wings carefully, _who could it be but you_? Saving the monster from death, nursing him into tameness, and now living his carefree days toiling until bone-deep exhaustion for the sake of his father’s dream.

Rin doesn’t understand his own magic sometimes. Sousuke can’t help but be entranced by it.

He holds his breath a little as Rin runs his finger cautiously through his downs. Rin is quiet now, no smile on his face and his eyes intent when he looks up at Sousuke. They’ve spent such little time together, barely a season. And Sousuke hears his own words, torn and tortured, so many days ago, _I don’t belong here. I’m a monster_. And he thinks now, _I don’t belong with you. You’re the fairytale._

Sometimes he thinks Rin can hear his thoughts in his own head. Rin reaches out and hesitates, his hand hovering close to Sousuke’s cheek. He drops it to caress his wings instead and Sousuke _knows_ that Rin doesn’t know how that feels but he can’t help thinking that Rin _meant_ to do exactly what he’s doing to him, his heart, his breath.

“I love your beautiful wings,” whispers Rin and Sousuke feels the cast of another spell.

He looks away, knowing his ears and cheeks are too read for him to be coherent. His eyes land on Rin’s tree: the snow was falling off.

“Rin,” says Sousuke. “Look.”

They watch the clump edge further off the branch, still as stubborn as ever. Sousuke wonders if one day he’ll be able to tell Rin what he loves about him and then he decides there’d be no point of that; all of his words would jumble and crash and mangle because in the end, what Rin is to him is nothing more than the sight of cirrostratus below him and the sound of the sun beaming. One day, Sousuke will be able to tell Rin that _he loves him_ and that’ll be all that matters in the end.

The snow falls off with a crash and Rin laughs delightedly. Sousuke’s breath catches in his throat.

A single pink blossom stands fresh and young on the naked branch.

 

 


End file.
